Cannabis is still the most popular illicit drug but its use decreased among adults and children last year. Getty Images/PhotoAlto

Fewer adults and children are using illegal drugs, new official statistics today show.

The number of adults in England who used illicit substances in 2009-10 has fallen to 8.6%. That equates to 2.8m people, but is the lowest figure ever recorded since drug-taking trends began being tracked in 1996. It is down from the 10.1% (3.24m) seen in 2008-09, the 11.1% recorded in 1996 and the all-time high of 12.3% in 2003-04.

The percentage of adults using a Class A drug such as heroin or cocaine in the previous year has also dropped from 3.7% to 3.1%, although that is up from the 2.7% seen in 1996. Cannabis is the most popular drug among adults; 6.6% of 16 to 59-year-olds admitted using it in 2009-10, down from 7.9% the previous year.

The NHS Information Centre's annual survey of drug misuse in England reveals the same downward trend among 16- to 24-year-olds. One in five (20%) of that age group used one or more illegal drugs in 2009-10, down from 22.6% and well below the 29.7% recorded in 1996. Some 7.3% of young adults had used a Class A drug, down from 8.1%. As with adults, cannabis was the most popular drug: 16.1% of those who took part in the survey had used it, down from 18.7%.

Among children aged 11-15, the proportion of those who have ever used banned substances has fallen from 29% in 2001 to 22% in 2009-10, the same as the year before. The percentage of school pupils taking drugs has also fallen over the same period, from 20% to 15%. Older pupils are much more likely than younger ones to take drugs – 30% of 15-year-olds said they had done so in the last year compared to 5% of those aged 11. Some 8.9% of pupils said they had taken cannabis, down from 13.4% in 2001. Pupils who have truanted or been excluded from school are most likely to take drugs. The number of pupils who say they have been offered drugs is also down, from 42% in 2001 to 33% in 2009-10.

However, the number of admissions to hospital in England due to a drug-related mental health or behavioural disorder rose by 5.7% to 44,585. Similarly, the number of hospital admissions due to drug poisoning also rose by 4.8%, to 11,618, with those aged 16-24 the most likely to be treated.

In 2009-10 a total of 206,889 people received help from drug services, with men almost three times more likely than women to get that support. However, encouragingly, 23,680 (38%) of the 62,685 people who were treated for drug dependency ended up no longer addicted to the substance that had led to their treatment.

Drugscope, which represents drug treatment services across the UK, welcomed the "encouraging" downward trends in drug use. "These figures confirm the encouraging trend we have seen in recent years for drug use among the general adult population and among young people to be falling. We also have an ageing heroin and crack-using population: there is no evidence of a new cohort of young people using these drugs coming up to replace older users", said Harry Shapiro, the charity's director of communications and information.

"It is difficult to be certain why general drug use is falling, but as a cultural phenomenon, occasional or so-called recreational drug use can be as much affected by the changes in fashion as any other lifestyle choices", Shapiro added.

"However, we still have an estimated 300,000-plus heroin and crack users in need of care, and while there is no evidence of a new generation of heroin users, our members running young people's services report cannabis and alcohol as significant problems. We must be mindful too of the potential impact of a new breed of drugs, the 'legal highs', which could present new challenges to services," he added.

Anne Milton, the public health minister, stressed that government policy was directed at getting people off drugs altogether. "Recovery is at the heart of our new approach which was recently outlined in the cross-government drugs strategy. Through Public Health England we will be introducing a locally owned, locally led system that will work with people to focus on recovery as the most effective route out of dependency."

The Department of Health greeted the statistics as "good news". A spokeswoman said: "Today's publication provides some very good news – drug misuse is falling in all age groups. But there is still more to do – the recently published drug strategy sets out how we will further improve services to ensure that more people have a chance of full recovery and rejoining society."

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About this article

Number of illegal drug users falls, survey shows

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 06.54 EST on Thursday 27 January 2011.
It was last modified at 02.20 EDT on Tuesday 20 May 2014.
It was first published at 06.53 EST on Thursday 27 January 2011.